(a) Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a thread structure of an aerator of a water faucet outlet, with the design of the pitch, the major diameter and the pitch diameter of an internal tread of the aerator and the variation tolerance. An effective engagement relation can be established when subject to the different metric and imperial specifications of the external thread of a water faucet outlet. The present invention provides a universal utilization and application.
(b) Description of Related Art
For avoiding an issue of water splashing while controlling the flow amount of discharged water from an faucet, an aerator is often installed on the water faucet outlet to obtain smoother water flow and to prevent water splashing. When water is discharged in a massive amount, the surroundings is prevented from being splashed with water and being wet.
What shall be addressed is that after the mentioned aerator has been used for a period of time, problems such as blocking or permeating may occur. As a result, the aerator is seen as a consuming product which has to be replaced every now and then. For facilitating the detachment and engagement of aerator, the bottom end of the water faucet outlet are often designed with external thread, and the aerator is designed with internal thread. With the matching design of internal and external threads, the aerator and the water faucet outlet can be smoothly and effectively engaged and locked.
However, during the faucet production, the measurement system and custom in different market regions may adopt different specifications. Two commonly used systems are metric and imperial for the matching of the threads of the faucet water outlet and the aerator. Under the two systems, two different specifications of metric and imperial are generated. As a result, a metric aerator cannot be used with an imperial faucet, and an imperial aerator cannot be used with a metric faucet, and a forced engagement of different specifications may cause inadequate engagement and permeation. Thus for the sales of aerator, the aerator is clearly marked with the specification of faucet suitably to be applied, thereby preventing the consumer from buying the unsuitable aerator.
As a matter of fact, most consumers are not aware if the faucets that they have been using are made to metric or imperial specification, or do not have the knowledge to identify the specification of the faucet they are using. Therefore, when buying an aerator, they would not pay the attention to whether the aerator is suitable for their faucet, and often feel frustrated when aerator with wrong specification is purchased. In addition, when the consumer takes the product back to the shop for replacement, the free replacement may not be available because the packaging of the product is damaged or missing, or because the product has some scratches. As a result, extra money has to be paid for getting the right product.